Provided is an optical element that highly efficiently radiates light with high
directivity at low etendue. The optical element includes a
light emission layer (103) generating an
exciton to emit light, a
plasmon excitation layer (105) having a higher
plasma frequency than a
light emission frequency of the
light emission layer (103), an output layer (107) converting light or a
surface plasmon generated on an upper surface of the
plasmon excitation layer (105) into light with a predetermined output angle to output the light, and a
dielectric layer (102). In the optical element, a real part of an effective
dielectric constant with respect to the
surface plasmon is higher in an upper side portion than the
plasmon excitation layer (105) than in a lower side portion than the
plasmon excitation layer (105); a
dielectric constant with respect to the light emission frequency of the light emission layer (103) is higher in a lowest layer than in a layer adjacent to a lower side of the
plasmon excitation layer (105); and assuming that a
radiation angle of a
surface plasmon-derived highly directional
radiation from the
plasmon excitation layer (105) to the output layer (107) side is θout,spp and a
radiation angle of an optical
waveguide fundamental mode-derived highly directional radiation is θout,light, an absolute value of a difference between the θout,spp and the θout,light is less than 10 degrees.